Media Center Revisited

[Erik]

I have been thinking of building a Windows MCE PC to basically use as an MP3 player and video recorder/player. My original plan was to use an LGA 775 motherboard I had sitting in the closet with a Celeron.

I just came across a good deal on a PIII 1GHz with a DFI CA64 motherboard. As I already have a bunch of sticks of RAM in these sticks of RAM around, and I could probably pick up an IDE HD cheap I could build this up for practically nothing. It also seemes like a bit of a waste to me using such a high end motherboard for such a lower power necessary application.

Would the PIII 1GHz work well enough for a media center PC?

I am thinking that this might work out well enough. Especially as I would basically leave the thing up and running 24/7. All it would need to do is playback whatever media I pick, not all that demanding of a task. Also this would be a dedicated media center tucked in a corner somewhere. I wouldn't be using it for anything other than media playback.

[saphalline]

Yes, I think a PIII @ 1GHz would be enough for MCE 2005. It will probably be slightly less responsive when you first change songs or whatever, but the overall speed of streaming won't be a problem. And heck, if you'll be saving a bunch of money, why not?

Just make sure you can have plenty of RAM in there. What chipset does that mobo use? The Intel 815 series of chipsets, for example, allowed a max of 512MB of SDRAM. My Socket 370 Linux machine, on the other hand, used VIA's 694T chipset, which allows a max of 1.5GB of SDRAM! :eek: Much better! :D

[Erik]

It is a VIA 694x/686B chipset, and supports up to 1GB of RAM in three DIMM sockets. I think I have like 3 256MB chips around, or maybe 2 256 and 1 128. Either way I think it will be enough RAM.

I got the board with CPU for $30, not too bad. I already have extra RAM, video cards, and sound cards around. Now all I need to find is a cheap case, and buy the TV tuner card combo with remote. I guess I will probably need to buy a HD, but I can look through my stockpile of parts and see if I have any decent IDE drives around but I doubt I have anything in the 100GB+ range, which is what I think I would need.

[saphalline]

There are so many sales on PATA hard drives in the big stores these days that I don't think you'll have a problem keeping it cheap. At some point, one of the biggies like Best Buy or CompUSA or Micro Center has some large hard drive on sale. Even better is that lately rebates are being replaced for instant price cuts!